Dir: Ali Toffan Al-Fatlawi | Mystery Drama 2026 | 120’|
The Iraqi marshlands, with their seemingly endless waterways, towering reeds and mysterious expanses of water, provide an extraordinary setting for Ali Toffan Al-Fatlawi’s Al Baseer – The Blind Ferryman, a film that quietly challenges our understanding of what it means to see. Its central character, Ayoub, is blind, yet possesses an intimate knowledge of the watery world through which he ferries passengers. His blindness is not presented as a limitation so much as another way of experiencing existence.
Ayoub’s carefully ordered life is disrupted when he encounters a mysterious woman who seems to emerge from the water. Falling deeply in love, he becomes increasingly consumed by their encounters, only to discover that the locals think she doesn’t exist at all.
The visual world is particularly important. The marshes are not simply a beautiful backdrop but an essential part of the film’s emotional and philosophical landscape. Water becomes a metaphor for uncertainty, concealment and transformation: a place where things can appear and disappear, where what is visible cannot necessarily be trusted. Cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer’s contribution is central to creating this atmosphere, while the film’s measured approach and mesmerising stillness give its limpid images room to breathe.
There is also an intriguing cultural dimension to the story. Ayoub’s world is not entirely removed from the harsh realities of contemporary Iraq. An encounter with religious radicals brings violence into the lives of his friends, suggesting a society in which intolerance and fear can intrude upon even the most intimate human relationships. Yet Al-Fatlawi wisely avoids turning his film into a conventional political statement.
There is, too, a more troubling suggestion about the cruelty of collective disbelief. When a community refuses to acknowledge an individual’s experience, it can isolate and ultimately destroy that person. Ayoub’s predicament becomes a meditation on loneliness, the need for human connection and the devastating consequences of being denied the right to believe in one’s own reality.
Ahmed Moneka gives Ayoub a compelling human presence, anchoring the film’s more elusive and mystical dimensions in an emotional reality. The supporting performances help establish a recognisable community against which his increasingly solitary journey becomes all the more affecting.
Cairo International Film Festival – Horizons of Arab Cinema | World Premiere